@SCALE

Friends, I shared this article on LinkedIn earlier this month on transformation failures, and it made me think of a story close to me. This is a tale of a digital traveler: a lean man who had fire in his agile soul, a fire that was nearly drowned out after getting caught in the rush of an unexpected waterfall. This is the story of that dream shattering, his redemption, and a cautionary tale for all the other heroes out there on their own digital transformation quests. Pour yourself your beverage of choice, and settle into your favorite easy chair next to a crackling fire, because I’m about to tell you a tragic story: The Death of an Agile Transformation in Four Acts.

I’m very pleased to announce that we’ve been included in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Agile Planning Tools as the top visionary offering a comprehensive solution for large-scale organizations aspiring to embrace Agile and DevOps. This is the first time we’ve been included in a Gartner Magic Quadrant, and we are honored that we’ve been chosen for such a prestigious position.

Innovation. Speed. Quality. Value. Today’s tech savvy customers demand these from the companies they support. If your organization can’t deliver on those expectations, consumers are just a single mouse click away from another company that can fill their order in a millisecond. Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon, put it this way; “Our customers are loyal to us right up until the second somebody offers them a better service.” When scaling Agile in your transforming organization, you need to be fully confident in the repeatable robustitude* of your delivery pipeline. The principles surrounding DevOps (people, process and technology), play a key role in that journey, and front and center is automation around testing, continuous integration, and continuous delivery.

Now that January is behind us and I have been able to read up on all the latest predictions for digital transformation in 2018, I wanted to highlight some of my favorites that resonated with me and I think they will resonate with you also.

By 2020, five of the top seven digital giants will willfully "self-disrupt" to create their next leadership opportunity. Gartner Top Strategic Predictions for 2018 and Beyond/ Pace Yourself, for Sanity's Sake

Individuals are increasingly asserting their desire to communicate and collaborate however they want, using their choice of tools. Employees ─ particularly millennials don’t just prefer to use their own devices, they also want to use their own applications. –Dimension Data Top IT Trends for 2018: digital workplaces

Digital disruptions … show no sign of being reduced in frequency or impact. Instead, those who seek value from technology-based options must move faster as their bimodal IT efforts move into high gear. – Gartner Top Strategic Predictions for 2018 and Beyond/ Pace Yourself, for Sanity's Sake

Over the next 18 to 24 months, we will likely see CIOs begin reengineering not only their IT shops but, more broadly, their approaches to technology. – Deloitte Insights Tech Trends 2018 - The symphonic enterprise

By 2020, we expect that the ‘new normal’ operating model will be customer- and context-cantered. That is, companies will change the way they interact with their customers based on the context of the exchange. They will offer a seamless omnichannel experience, through a smart balance of human and machines.- Financial services technology 2020 and beyond: Embracing disruption

Seventy percent of healthcare companies are looking to digitize their operations in order to facilitate growth. While healthcare organizations see the value of digitalization, just 3 percent have completed digital transformations across their enterprises, while 54 percent of the organizations are testing or piloting digital transformation programs. - SAP Digital Transformation Executive Study: “4 Ways Leaders Set Themselves Apart"

And one last one from me - 2018 will be the first year AI is truly harnessed in large scale enterprises to optimize software delivery and accelerate digital transformation.

Hear more about AgileCraft’s adoption of Artificial Intelligence in our latest press release on our mission to optimize enterprise agility with machine learning.

It’s like that time you saw that gorgeous 1968 Alfa Romeo Giulietta for sale on Craigslist – truly a thing of beauty, with all the bells and whistles one could want. It even has a brand-new paint job, new aftermarket headlights, and a cool new stereo. The owner is selling it for dirt cheap, and insists it’s ready to go, . It’s like the mythical Craig of Craigslist crawled right in your head, figured out your dream car and plopped it right into your search results. Excitedly, you mention it to your favorite uncle, who happens to be a very smart, old school auto mechanic.